A bitter after-tasteThe news from Iraq that Islamic terrorists have now taken over cities that American troops liberated during the Iraq war must have left an especially bitter after-taste to Americans who lost a loved one who died taking one of those cities, or to a survivor who came back without an arm or leg, or with other traumas to body or mind. Surely we need to learn something from a tragedy of this magnitude. Some say that we should never have gone into I...

Colleges must deal with frequency of assaultsAmerican colleges and universities are being challenged to do something about the frequency of sexual assaults on their campuses. In connection with the release of a task force study in late April, Vice President Joe Biden offered a shocking statistic —that one in five women is assaulted in her college years. In fact, that assertion is in the first paragraph of the executive summary of the task force report: “One in five women is sexually assa...

Runoff guarantees more Medicaid dramaLITTLE ROCK — The defeat of an architect of Arkansas’ “private option” Medicaid expansion doesn’t necessarily doom a program heralded as a way for Republican-leaning states to embrace a key part of the federal health law. But it definitely crushes legislative leaders’ hopes for less drama when they take up the matter next year. Scott Flippo’s win over state Rep. John Burris in the Republican runoff for state Senate District 17 offered a substa...

Toilet is fixture in baseball team’s dugoutA Michigan high school baseball team is trying to flush away the bad plays by making a tradition of carting a toilet to its games. The former bathroom fixture has become a game day fixture in Kalamazoo Christian’s dugout. As the team celebrated a 6-4 win over Britton Deerfield in the Michigan High School Athletic Association Division 4 quarterfinals last week, players carried out the toilet to the surprise of many at Bailey Park in Battle Cree...

Limited government means different things to 2 major partiesProbably the most difficult limited-government issues involve determining the substantive rights as they pertain to individuals in a representative, federalist democracy. These rights are generally stated in the United States Bill of Rights (first 10 amendments to the Constitution) and the phrase life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in the Declaration of Independence. Theoretically, the only limitations on these individual liberties are ...

New jobs across ArkansasLITTLE ROCK — Because of a recent wave of economic development announcements, Arkansas has a lot to celebrate. In the past few weeks alone, six businesses have revealed plans that collectively add more than 1,600 jobs and $140 million in investments throughout the State. In Fort Smith, transportation company ArcBest Corp. and Georgia-Pacific’s Dixie plant will bring more than 1,000 new jobs to Sebastian County. These expansions are particularl...

Amnesty lite is still amnestyNot since a 42-to-1 underdog named Buster Douglas knocked out undefeated heavyweight champion Mike Tyson in 1990 has there been an upset like economics professor Dave Brat defeating House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in the Republican primary in Virginia. You couldn’t write a script like this for a movie and have it be believable. Congressman Eric Cantor, with all kinds of name recognition, and outspending his opponent by 5 million dollars to $...

Dive deep to find the gift of connection“Driven to Distraction” is no longer just a title to a book that covers ADHD, but is also a phrase that describes how many of us feel in our day-to-day lives. The opportunities and choices are enormous and they can easily overwhelm our capacity to make order out of our everyday world. David Brooks’ opinion piece in the “ New York Times” earlier this month titled “The Art of Focus” provided advice to beat this challenge. “The lesson from childh...

The secret of the lemonWhat comes to your mind when you hear the word lemon? Is it something that is sour, or perhaps a car that broke down on the way out of the dealer’s parking lot? I believe I am safe in saying these are mental images many people have when they hear the word lemon. It is not often I begin a column with a disclaimer, but such is the case here. All I am saying is that you need to check this information out for your own satisfaction. With the help o...

President Obama’s prisoner swap dealPeople are arguing about what the United States got out of the deal that swapped five top level terrorist leaders for one American soldier who was, at best, absent from his post in a war zone. Soldiers who served in the same unit with him call him a deserter. The key to this deal, however, is less likely to be what the United States got out of the deal than it is about what Barack Obama got out of the deal. If nothing else, it instantly got th...

Congratulations Shane JonesI am very encouraged by your election, Shane, and just wanted to print a column so that others on the web page could tell you the same. I think that there could be a new level of cooperation within county bodies. I am a little concerned that you might be too nice a guy, though. You may have to develop a mean streak. Good luck, and I know you will have a lot of help and support. Harold Tate Atkins

Do we really need runoffs?Leslie Rutledge and David Sterling, the state’s two remaining Republican candidates for attorney general, spent the weeks leading up to Tuesday’s runoff election scouring the state looking for votes. The question is, should they have had to? They were “scouring” rather than “campaigning” because turnout was expected to be less than 5 percent, and so the winner wasn’t the one who best presented their candidacy to Arkansans — it was the one who ...

Sheriffs want state to stop passing buck to themArkansas sheriffs don’t seem to be getting much sympathy in response to their plea for a legislative solution to a dilemma caused by the state’s latest “get-tough-on-criminals” effort. Ronnie Baldwin, executive director of the Arkansas Sheriffs Association, last week described county jails as being in a “dire situation” and urged the governor and Legislature to address the issue in a special session. The problem, according to the sheriffs, is ...

Let’s build roads for all citizensI have been reading with interest the articles and letters regarding complete streets. As usual in current American discourse, the issue has served mostly to exemplify the polarization of our political culture. Let’s forget that anyone ever used the term “complete streets.” We all know that our street design could be improved for drivers, cyclists and pedestrians. The only way we will be able to accomplish improvements is if we agree to work t...

Misunderstood fitnessHollywood. There is something about the industry — perhaps the lure of popular society and fame — that sends men and women across the nation swarming into local gymnasiums and weight rooms. With the seemingly unending string of superhero movies, many people feel they must catch up to society, and therefore set sights on a new fitness level. But unknown to most, there is a “goal” of fitness that is ridiculously skewed. I personally witnessed th...

Dunning-Kruger, confident and stupidThe dumber you are, the louder you yell. I’ve decided our current political spectrum can be explained by the Dunning-Kruger effect. Nay, our entire lives and the people we come in contact with. Let me explain. The Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias which leads unskilled individuals to have illusory superiority, that is — mistakenly rating their ability much higher than is accurate. Stupid people are unable to understand their own inepti...

Keeping Arkansas beautiful for 25 yearsLITTLE ROCK — On June 13, 1989, Gov. Bill Clinton signed an executive order creating the Keep Arkansas Beautiful program. It began as a statewide litter-prevention and recycling initiative. Since then, the nonprofit organization has grown significantly while working with communities statewide, helping them become stewards of their local environments. Arkansas has a history of protecting and nurturing our natural resources upon which much of ou...

For people who saw a needOne month ago, I fell on the sidewalk in front of Goodwill. I was bruised, but not seriously injured. There are several people I want to thank. First, my dearest friend Linda South, who held my hand and kept me calm. Second, a precious couple who were eating at New China and saw the whole accident. She is a nurse. Third, a man in a truck driving on North Arkansas Avenue who just turned in when he saw me fall. The two ladies in Goodwill who kno...

Should states decide on immigration?Should immigration be more of a state issue than it is now? Ken Hamilton, Libertarian candidate for Congress in the 4th District, says it should be. The federal government sure can’t seem to solve it on its own. Here’s how immigration would work if Hamilton, 58, an El Dorado accountant with Murphy USA, got his way. The federal government would continue to enforce border security and decide who gets to come into the country, but it would do so ...

Long thin line of personal anguishEditor’s note: This is the third of three columns written by Ernie Pyle following the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944. Permission to distribute and re-publish Ernie Pyle’s columns was given by the Scripps Howard Foundation. NORMANDY BEACHHEAD, June 17, 1944 — In the preceding column we told about the D-day wreckage among our machines of war that were expended in taking one of the Normandy beaches. But there is another and more human litter. It ...